Case-2 (Cultural Norms, Fair and Lovely, and Advertising)

GROUP ASSIGNMENT

A. Is it ethical to sell a product that is, at best, only mildly effective? Discuss.

Ans: It is not ethical to sell a product that is only mildly effective because might violate the
principles of ethics and consumers might have high expectations from the product. Also, in some
particular situations, it can be stated as fraudulent. And if the product does not meet the
requirements it states then the customer hereafter has all the rights to sue the product or product
company. Fair and Lovely is a product of Hindustan Lever Ltd. and the company equates its
products as a “The miracle worker.” In this case, we have seen that many Indian women have
been using this product and it has proven to be not effective and they have all the rights to sue
the production company as the product did not work as stated.

B. Is it ethical to exploit cultural norms and values to promote a product? Discuss.

Ans: It is not ethical to take advantage of cultural norms and values to sell a product. Using one
culture for advertising purposes may be offensive to other cultures. Culture generally deals with
patterns and symbolic structures of human activities that give importance to such activities.
Using cultural practices to promote products is seen as dishonorable and unacceptable law.
HLL’s Fair and Lovely are accused of tarnishing the Indian cultural tradition by AIDWA.

C. Is the advertising of Fair & Lovely demeaning to women, or is it promoting the

fairness cream in a way not too dissimilar from how most cosmetics are promoted?

Ans: In the Fair & Lovely ad, we see that beauty for women is defined by the color of their skin
and that women with darker skin are not beautiful. In this case study, we have seen that a woman
is not able to get a better job unless she uses Fair and Lovely and her skin becomes bright hue.
This type of advertising clearly shows how disrespectful these ads are to women, and it is
actually racism that the company classifies women by skin color. The ads clearly state that
without a bright skin tone these women will not succeed and such ads can cause more harm than
good because if some women do not get a good job, they may even go to trauma and they may
think that it is because of their dark complexion and may go into despair. In India and many

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 other Asian countries, it is discriminatory and racist for women as they are being compared to
men because of the color of their skin where dark complexity is not affecting men.

D. Will HLL’s Fair and Lovely Foundation be enough to counter changes made by
AIDWA? Discuss.

Ans: The establishment of Fair and Lovely Foundation was a good step but to fix the image of
Hindustan Lever Limited and the negative impact of the women segment in Indian society, it is
not enough. Though this company pulled off their unethical ads and did some work that is
beneficial for society especially for women, it helps the company to reposition and increase Fair
and Lovely annual sales and market share. I think Hindustan Lever cosmetics needs to sustain
the foundation to continue to discharge the corporate social responsibility that informed its
establishments. Also, Hindustan Lever Limited should innovate a new promotional strategy that
goes positively with Indian culture.

E. Propose a promotion/marketing program that will counter all the arguments and
charges against Fair & Lovely and be an effective program.

Ans: Fair and Lovely first need to recognize the market and its customers and should identify the
cause of the roots of a problem and try to know if the rights of their consumers are respected.
They should be promoting a new advertising campaign and advertise in a more positive way.
They can divide the market into segments to determine pricing by segmenting the market, which
ensures maximum sales that all the market segments have been prepared for. They should adopt a
new promotion strategy and be more cautious about cultural aspects.

F. Now that a male market for fairness cream exists, is the strength of AIDWA’s
argument weakened?

Ans: The main purpose of the AIDWA is that HLL does not advertise anything that are racist
against women and about the color of their skin because it will diminish their self-esteem.
Fairness cream for male does not affect the argument of AIDWA, AIDWA wants HLL to promote
their product fairly without violating any type of cultural issues and inequality.

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